With the pending application of the Agency Workers Regulations, it yet again shows the importance of knowing your legal obligations and understanding what is expected of your business when working in the recruitment industry. This article should provide you with a summary of some of the important things to remember when dealing with clients and candidates:
- Have terms in place with your clients as early on as possible, and in all cases, before you start introducing candidates – not only a requirement of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003 (“the Conduct Regulations”) (when supplying candidates) but also a crucial aspect of commercial protection.
- Obtain all necessary consents from your candidates before forwarding on their details – this will prevent any claims that your actions have been without the candidate’s authorisation.
- When supplying candidates, ensure that there are always transfer fee provisions in your terms and that these provisions comply with the requirements set out in the Conduct Regulations (as amended).
- When dealing with limited company candidates, ensure you are aware of the requirements to opt-out of the Conduct Regulations and that where a candidate indicates that they wish to opt-out, that these requirements are adhered to.
- The Agency Workers Regulations are coming – in all cases when supplying candidates you should be obtaining specific bespoke advice on how it will affect your business and ways to mitigate any negative impact – your clients will be asking!
Lawspeed provides advice on all aspects of recruitment law. If you need advice on any of the matters above, or indeed any other issue affecting your company, call us on 01273 236 236.
Adrian, a highly experienced lawyer, founded Lawspeed in 1997. He is responsible for developing our extensive portfolio of products and services, including the widely used Lawspeed contract templates. Adrian is an expert on “recruitment law” and specialises in contracts, regulatory compliance, employment status and dispute handling. He is chair of the trade body the Association of Recruitment Consultancies, the only lawyer lead recruitment trade body in the UK. Adrian and his co-director Ravi devised Standards in Recruitment as a vehicle for helping drive up standards and compliance in the industry.
Adrian is our lead in discussions with the government over regulatory evolution. Apart from assisting with client support, Adrian’s primary role is research and development into methods of business delivery, our latest service Proterms being his most recent project. Adrian heads our IR35 lawyers team.